Resident Star Fox
by StotheR
Summary: Team Star Fox is sent on a mission to Raccoon City to investigate the mysterious Umbrella Corporation. What was meant to be an espionage assignment quickly becomes a mission of survival. With his team separated, Fox becomes trapped in a tangled web of conspiracies and plots in which even those he trusts most are hiding secrets.
1. Chapter 1: Enter Star Fox

Chapter 1

Raccoon City: a city controlled by Umbrella. The corporate juggernaut that got its name from a weather accessory was the planet Earth's most influential force, having spread its power like a virus to all of it's corners. While on the surface the Umbrella Corporation was a friendly, legitimate business that specialized in the research and distribution of pharmaceuticals in every field one can imagine, the corporation had its share of skeletons in the closet: the most significant of which being it's research and development of biological weapons.

Everyone who knew of Umbrella had heard these stories, but they were dismissed as nothing but rumors. Nevertheless, rumors have a way of shaking one's trust. This was true both for the Government of Earth _and _its allies.

Yes, humanity wasn't alone in the galaxy anymore. Shortly after the discovery of light speed, humans had discovered Lylat: a solar system comprised of planets inhabited by sapient, technologically advanced beings that resembled a variety of bipedal animals. Through complex negotiations and a bit of luck, the U.N was able to create a healthy alliance with Corneria, the Lylat system's core planet. For a few decades, humans and cornerians have enjoyed a good political relationship, but one way or another things kept coming back to Umbrella, whose mysterious machinations found themselves affecting Corneria as well.

This was the main reason Fox McCloud now found himself in the quiet mountain town of Raccoon City, Colorado. As the bipedal fox drove along the dark empty streets in a rental car, he found himself reflecting on how he ended up here. The day had started out just like any other on board his ship, _The Great Fox_. He had been on the command bridge, chatting up his mentor and long time friend Peppy Hare, when they had received a message on their communication screen from General Pepper of the Cornerian Army.

"_We need your help Star Fox!_" Fox wasn't sure why the decorated Bulldog General always felt like he had to greet them in such a dramatic way. A simple: _Hello. How have you been_ would be nice.

"Not too long ago, one of our secure laboratories was broken into, and important top-secret research was stolen," General Pepper had continued, "We're not sure who is responsible, but their equipment was marked with this insignia."

The General had displayed an octagonal image of what looked like a red and white umbrella viewed from the top down. Fox had immediately recognized the image as the Umbrella Corporation's sigil, which for whatever reason the eclectic company felt the need to put on everything they owned.

It was then that Team Star Fox received their mission: go to Earth under the guise of visiting civilians and investigate Umbrella's central headquarters in Raccoon City. The plan was to land in different parts of the state and all make their way to Raccoon City separately, so as not to arouse suspicion. They had previously established a non-descript diner as the location for their rendezvous, and that was where Fox was trying to go.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" His mentor Peppy had said before they departed. While Fox was usually quick to point out the old rabbit _always_ had a bad feeling about something, as he drove alone down the barren streets of the mountain community, Fox found himself agreeing with Peppy's earlier words.

The unease began as the sun went down and he first drove past the sign reading "Welcome to Raccoon City: Home of Umbrella" (accompanied by the all too familiar red and white octagonal logo) and arrived at the first of many armed checkpoints. Although he had no trouble getting through, Fox found it odd that a seemingly small town would have such tight security.

And now here he was, driving down empty street after empty street on his way to the diner where he was to rendezvous with the rest of his team. He stopped at an intersection and ground his teeth together as he looked around. Nothing. There weren't any people walking around and every vehicle in sight was vacant, unceremoniously discarded along the side of the road. It was as if time had stopped and he was the only living thing left in the city.

Fox could almost hear Peppy saying "It's quiet… too quiet…" as he often did in situations like these.

Fox stepped on the gas and continued driving. He hated this. Not just the increasingly ominous emptiness, but the whole damn mission as well. Fox was a pilot first and foremost. He would much rather have been flying his Arwing avoiding laser fire than doing all of this covert spy stuff. His Arwing was like an extension of his body, he felt naked on a mission where he wasn't in its cockpit. This gas powered land vehicle just wasn't doing it for him.

Time and time again Fox found himself thinking whether he preferred it when Corneria was still at war with Venom. Everything seemed simpler then. At least during the Lylat War there was a clear enemy. Was he a bad person for thinking this? Probably.

The galaxy was still at war, but this war was fought differently. Now the enemy was invisible, everywhere and nowhere all at once. It had no territory it called its own or even a clear face. This enemy took the form of dozens rebel factions and shadowy corporations of which Umbrella was only one. Fox didn't feel like he could trust anyone anymore, and more and more he found himself wondering if it was all worth fighting for.

Fox shook his head as if he was literally trying to fling those thoughts from it, urging himself to remain focused on the mission. This proved to be wise, as he noticed that there was something lying in the middle of the street right in his path. A person.

Fox slammed on the brakes and his car came screeching to a halt mere meters in front of the motionless form. As Fox studied it through his windshield, he noticed that it was a woman with dark hair and gray clothes covered in splotches of something. Fox decided to get out of the car and see if she was okay, but was compelled to put a hand on his holstered blaster as he did so.

As Fox approached the inert form, he tried calling out to her "M'am? Are you okay? Do you need help?" The woman remained still on the ground. As Fox drew closer he began to think that the odds of this person still being alive were getting more and more unlikely, as he realized the dark stains on her clothes was blood and saw that her face was extremely pale.

Nevertheless, Fox thought he should check her pulse, just to be sure. He knelt down over her and tentatively moved his hand toward the inert woman's face. He placed it on her neck and felt for a pulse. Nothing. She was cold as ice.

Before Fox could do anything else, he spotted movement in his peripherals. He rose to his feet and saw an old man wearing tattered clothes slowly shuffling down the street some feet away. Finally, it was time to get some answers.

"Excuse me? Sir?" Fox called out to the ambling figure. The old man was stopped in his tracks by Fox's voice. "What's going on here?"

The old man stiffly turned to face him, and Fox immediately knew that something was off about him. His suspicions were confirmed when Fox got a good look at the man's face, and noticed that a good chunk of it was… missing. He didn't really know how else to describe the torn bloody mess that was the side of the man's face. It was as if something had taken a large bite out of him.

"Sir? Are you okay?" Fox asked, feeling worse about this whole scenario by the moment. The mutilated old man took a moment to just stare at Fox before abruptly changing course and shuffling directly toward him.

The man continued staring at Fox with those eyes. They were completely lifeless, and yet had a sort of urgency in them; a great hunger that needed to be satiated. This look was accompanied by a low groan that sounded like the last breaths escaping a dying man. Now thoroughly unnerved about the whole thing, Fox drew his blaster and raised it at the oncoming man.

"Sir! Stop where you are!" Fox firmly warned blaster aimed steadily at what Fox was now starting to believe was an attacker. The man kept coming; shuffling at nearly twice the speed now then he was going initially. It was as if he could sense the panic starting to rise in Fox's gut.

"_I'm warning you!_" Fox yelled a bit louder this time, but it did nothing to stop the gait of the oncoming man, who was now very close, arms stretched out groping at him in an almost frantic desperation.

_Screw it_. Fox fired a shot at his attacker's left shoulder and the bolt of concentrated plasma hit its mark. To Fox's surprise and horror; the old man barely seemed fazed. Fox's laser had sent him staggering back a step, but the man continued his awkward gait forward, letting loose another hoarse moan. Fox fired another shot, this one hitting the man square in the chest. No reaction. The man was practically on him now. Fox fired one last shot, aiming this one square at his attacker's head.

The old man turned limp and flopped to the ground like a wet rag, making one last, terrible gurgling sound. After a few seconds of staring cautiously at the now still form of the man who earlier was shrugging off his laser shots like they were only bothersome flies, Fox allowed himself to loosen his grip on his weapon, bringing it down to his side and letting out a sigh.

His relief was short lived, as not more than a second later Fox heard another unnatural groan. Then another. And another. Fox did a 180 and found himself squinting to see past the headlights of his own stopped vehicle. All around the car were dozens of silhouettes, each one of them shambling towards Fox just like the old man was earlier.

Fox raised his blaster again and frantically surveyed the approaching mob of silhouettes, starting to wonder whether he could even take this many of… whatever these things were.

Suddenly, Fox felt something grab his leg, nearly causing him to jump out of his skin (rest assured, his skin was still very much intact). Fox looked down and saw the dark haired woman, the one for whom he stopped and gotten out of his car, the one he had declared dead only moments ago, was now holding his leg firmly and appeared to be frantically trying to take a bite out of it!

With a bit of a struggle, Fox freed his leg and delivered a kick to her… or its head. It was then that Fox decided that the wise thing to do was the one thing he hated doing. He turned and ran. Fox had never run from a fight before, and had taken an almost childish pride in it. Regardless here he was, running for his life down the dark empty streets of Raccoon City. Except, the streets were no longer empty.

All around him, more of those things were coming out of the woodwork. Stiff and sickly looking humans and cornerians alike aimlessly shuffled the street as Fox ran, many of them stopping to observe him with hungry eyes. Monsters. Fox decided that was the most appropriate description of them. Cheap imitations of living people, unnatural and wrong.

Looking ahead, Fox spotted the flickering neon lights of a diner and a glimmer of hope appeared, as he realized that was the very diner that he was to meet up with the rest of Star Fox Team. He continued his run towards the diner, dodging around the walking corpses like a football player going for a life or death touchdown.

Finally Fox arrived at the front door of the diner and wasted no time in pulling it open. He was surprised when he made to enter and came face to face with a young man with blonde hair wearing a blue police uniform complete with a riot control vest that said "R.P.D" on it. The two of them stared at each other in confusion for half a second, apparently equally as surprised at finding another living thing in this Hellish city.

The uniformed stranger suddenly stepped back and raised a handgun at Fox, and for a moment the space fighter pilot thought that he had survived being devoured by monsters only to get shot by some random guy.

It was then that the man yelled at him, "_Move!_" Without questioning or even thinking, Fox stepped aside and the man in uniform pulled the trigger on his weapon, landing a headshot on the decaying creature that Fox didn't even realize was about to bite into him.

Fox looked back in shocked stupor at the policeman, who moved back into the diner and with a swift head motion gestured for Fox to follow. He did so without hesitation, securing the diner door before turning to face his new companion.

"Thanks. I'm Fox McCloud of Team Star Fox!" He always liked to introduce himself in a way that made him seem as awesome as possible.

The other man nodded. "Name's Leon. Leon Kennedy."

"Do you know what the heck's going on here?" Fox asked, though his hopes of finding answers were pretty much completely jettisoned at this point.

Leon just shrugged, "Beats me. Just got here myself!"

Fox frowned. Figures he'd get stuck with some rookie cop. Though that was the least of his problems. Fox took a look around the empty diner. The place was a complete mess and there appeared to be no power. What bothered him the most is that there was no sign of his teammates anywhere. All he could do was hope they had simply left, and were still alive out there somewhere.

"Well, what now?" Fox was usually the one to take charge of a combat situation, but he was quite out of his element now. All he could do was hope that this Leon person knew Raccoon City better than him.

"I was on my way to the police department when my truck broke down and the monsters showed up…" Leon said thoughtfully, "If anywhere in this city is still safe, it'll be there!"

"Alright let's go!" Fox said, turning towards the door. Then, out of force of habit, Fox said "All aircraft report!"

Fox winced. Leon just stared at him incredulously, "Uh… okay…" Fox decided not to say anything else and just headed for the door. Leon followed.

As the two of them headed back outside, Fox noticed a billboard across the street. The billboard was adorned with the face of a small blue-eyed baby accompanied by the words "Umbrella Corporation: _Our business is life itself_." The all-too familiar red and white octagonal symbol loomed over the entire image. Although he still had no idea what exactly was going on in Raccoon City, Fox had a hunch about who or what was responsible.


	2. Chapter 2: Living in a Lost City

Chapter 2

_September 28__th_

_The monsters have overtaken the city._

_Somehow… I'm still alive…_

Krystal stood in front of the desk, looking down at what she had written on the typewriter. The blue vixen found typing out her thoughts to be quite therapeutic in times of stress and was an excellent way to save the progress she had made to her memory.

With a tired sigh, Krystal turned and stared out the window of the small office she currently sought refuge in and looked out onto the rest of the warehouse. Crates and large metal containers filled the lower level, and a couple of forklifts sat abandoned along the walls. The admittedly obese man Krystal had rescued was likely exactly where she left him: cowering inside one of the large containers. She had told him that they had to keep moving, and he had told her that there was no way he was going back out there to be eaten by those undead monsters.

Krystal could understand he was scared, even if she wasn't. … Okay, so maybe she was a little scared. … Okay, so maybe she had vomited the first time she had to kill one of those monstrosities by crushing its head into a bloody paste with her boot, but that's not important. The point is, they had to find a safer place to bunker down and he was being completely unreasonable.

Krystal realized that she might simply have to leave him. If he wanted to starve to death in here that was up to him not her. Even so, the thought of leaving a man to die left her feeling terribly guilty and uncomfortable.

Suddenly, the harsh sound of static from the nearby radio cut into her morbid train of thought and an authoritative voice emerged: "Everyone in the downtown Raccoon City area must evacuate to the Raccoon City Police Department immediately," it stated. "An emergency evacuation has been initiated and a rescue team is on its way."

The message had been repeating on all channels for the past few hours since the chaos broke out. Although Krystal's next stop was the police station, she wasn't planning on leaving Raccoon City, at least not yet. As much as she wanted to simply put this nightmare behind her, there was a reason Krystal had come to this accursed town in the first place before all Hell broke loose. She was going to find out whether what she was told about Umbrella's experiments years ago was true and if it was, find sufficient evidence to make sure they'll pay for what they did!

But before Krystal could do any of that, she had to establish contact with her employers, and the Raccoon City Police Department was more than likely to have a working long-range communicator. Checking her handgun to make sure it had a full clip loaded, Krystal grabbed a few extra clips of ammo, a first aid spray and a few ink ribbons (in case she found more typewriters) and made her way back out to the dangerous streets of Raccoon City.

* * *

The dark streets of downtown Raccoon City returned to ominous silence as Fox and Leon continued to carefully make their way around deserted buildings and vehicles. There were a lot more crashed and burning cars the further the pair got into the heart of the city. Once or twice they passed by a blockade of still flashing police cruisers, but the only police left were now aimlessly shambling around, hungry for their next meal.

The ace pilot and rookie cop made it a point to avoid open conflict with the undead out of need to conserve ammo and avoid drawing the attention of others. Sneaking and maneuvering past the slow shuffling zombies had worked pretty well for them thus far. Now the two of them were walking along a fairly empty street surrounded by tall skyscrapers, not a corpse in sight (dead or otherwise). This caused both of them to relax a bit as they continued walking.

"So what did they take?" Leon asked after a short moment of relatively comfortable silence (well, as comfortable as one can get walking through a monster infested city).

"Hmm?" Was Fox's reply before he remembered that he had told this Leon fellow about the reason why he was in Raccoon City a few minutes after they left the diner. Considering the situation, Fox had figured that it hardly mattered whether this rookie cop knew he was here to investigate Umbrella after they had allegedly stolen some research from the Cornerian Government. "Oh, I'm not sure. General Pepper wasn't exactly clear on the details."

Leon frowned, "And that doesn't strike you as odd? That your government would send you to find something without telling you what it is?"

It was Fox's turn to frown. That fact did strike him as odd as soon as the mission was assigned, but he had chosen to push all doubt from his mind. He knew he could trust General Pepper.

"I guess…" Fox replied lamely. After another short, albeit much less comfortable pause, Fox opted for a subject change. "So, you think Umbrella is behind this?"

"If the rumors about them are true, it would make a lot of sense…" Leon trailed off as something occurred to him, "but what would Umbrella gain from doing this to an entire city?"

Fox scratched his chin as he thought about this, "Unless it wasn't on purpose…"

The pair's thought process was interrupted as they rounded a corner and were greeted by a chorus of low groans. Ahead of Fox and Leon stood about a dozen of the walking corpses, all staring hungrily their way, several large fires from crashed vehicles lighting the street behind them. Fox and Leon turned hoping to outrun the group of creatures down the street they had come from only to find even more of them emerging from alleys and crawling out from under abandoned cars.

"Damn!" Leon cursed as the pair of survivors quickly noticed they were completely sandwiched.

Fox silently seconded Leon's exclamation. This was insane! One moment, the streets would be quiet and devoid of all life and the next they would be crowded with ravenous monsters and… technically _still_ devoid of all life!

Wordlessly, the pilot and policeman backed against each other and raised their weapons at the oncoming horde.

"Bet you I take out more!" Fox said, a smug grin forming on his face.

"You're on!" Leon exclaimed. Fox couldn't see his face, but he was willing to bet the man was also grinning.

Both of them opened fire, placing carefully aimed headshots into the advancing army of undead. Turning the whole thing into a game had been a great idea on Fox's part. He used to do it all the time with Falco whenever they were on one of their missions. For all of their differences, aerial combat and ground combat had one thing in common: death is always a looming presence waiting to strike the moment something goes wrong. Fox found that making a game out of it with his comrades was one of the most useful ways to cope with that fact. At times Fox could almost see the numbers and score multipliers appear with each enemy ship he brought down, and soon he was seeing it with each of the lumbering corpses that collapsed to the ground in a bloody pile.

In a matter of moments, the monsters that had filled the streets all lay motionless on the ground, their brain fluids leaking out onto the pavement. Satisfied that the area was now safe, Fox turned to face Leon.

"Fourteen!" Fox proudly proclaimed.

Although all of the undead on Leon's half of the street were now just the regular kind of dead, Leon did not turn to face Fox, instead opting to scan his half for any more of the walking dead. Fox was about to tell him to just concede defeat when he heard more moaning and hissing. Sure enough, a female cornerian that appeared to be lacking legs was on her stomach clawing her way along the street towards the currently competing survivors. Leon casually raised his handgun and fired a shot into the thing's head, stopping it from crawling further.

"Fourteen." Leon stated, finally turning to face Fox.

Well it seemed they were at an impasse. Fox was never used to tying these admittedly petty little competitions between friends and already he did not like the anti-climactic feel of it. Yet another thing to add to the list of reasons he liked flying better than working on the ground.

At the moment of realization that they were going to have to wait until their little game was properly resolved, another chilling groan filled the air and another monster that had apparently stumbled out of a nearby car while the fox and the human were distracted now ambled towards them a few meters away.

Fox and Leon exchanged a quick glance, both realizing that this would be the tie-breaking zombie. Before either of them could act on this fact, a large shiny object of some sort was thrown between them. Fox and Leon only realized that the object was a knife once it was embedded firmly in the tie-breaking zombie's left eye. The two of them watched with wide eyes as the creature keeled over, the knife in its face not so much as budging.

Slowly, Fox and Leon turned to locate the source of the thrown knife. What they saw was a young woman wearing blue jeans and a black shirt underneath a bright red biker's jacket. She wore her brown hair in a ponytail.

"Huh. Didn't think any of this stuff my brother taught me would actually work…" she muttered as she calmly walked past the openly gaping Fox and Leon to retrieve her knife. With a certain amount of effort, the bloody blade was pulled from the undead creature's eye socket and returned to its holster.

"I'm Claire by the way. Claire Redfield." The young woman turned to face the duo.

"Name's Leon. You've got some skill with that!"

"Fox McCloud. Team Star Fox."

Claire gave both of them a friendly smile, before her face suddenly changed as a thought came to her. She took a step toward the cop and Arwing pilot. "Hey, you two wouldn't happen to know a 'Chris Redfield' would you?"

Fox and Leon exchanged a look before shaking their heads. "No. Sorry." Leon answered for both of them. Claire's posture deflated visibly.

"Relative of yours?" Fox guessed.

Claire nodded. "My brother. That's why I'm here. To find him."

"Find him?" Leon asked curiously.

Before the group could continue their conversation, another chorus of moaning and growling came in from the direction Leon and Fox had first come from.

"I'll explain later. Right now we need to move!" Claire exclaimed, already walking past Fox and Leon at a brisk pace.

"No argument here!" Fox agreed as he and Leon followed her. Although the issue of his unresolved competition with the human police officer was still present, at the moment Fox wasn't feeling up to facing another horde of monsters quite yet.

"We need to find another way to travel." Claire said, scanning their surroundings. "Walking around the streets like this is going to get us all killed!"

"Well, we're open to suggestions!" Leon replied, seeing movement in his peripherals and swiveling to see nothing but a dark, empty alley.

Claire didn't respond, simply surveying the abandoned vehicles littered about one more time before running towards the closest one: an SUV. Fox followed her while Leon remained standing in the middle of the street, his head on a swivel. Before Fox could ask what Claire was doing, the brunette swiftly delivered her elbow to the driver's side window, shattering it to pieces. She then reached through, unlocked the door from the inside, threw it open, dove under the wheel and pulled off a small panel, exposing several wires. Claire did it all with the speed and precision of someone who had performed those actions many times before.

Fox, who wasn't exactly a skilled mechanic (usually letting Slippy handle all but the most basic of Arwing maintenance), looked at what she was doing curiously. "What are you…?"

"I'm hotwiring the car." Claire answered before he could finish.

Fox just nodded, pretending to understand what that meant. "Guess your brother taught you that too?"

"Nah, I just really like cars."

"Hey guys?" Leon called out from where he was slowly stepping back towards them, "You might want to do whatever you're doing faster!"

Sure enough, more of the all too familiar unnatural groans began to emerge from all around them. Soon, the shadows that Leon kept seeing move out of the corner of his eye manifested into more of the ravenous shambling monsters. Leon loaded a fresh clip into his handgun and he and Fox opened fire on the quickly enclosing circle of zombies while Claire continued messing with the wires under the steering wheel.

Left and right undead heads burst into clouds of red as Fox and Leon attempted to hold them at bay. Much to Fox's horror, another group of monsters emerged from the burning wreckage of several vehicles nearby. These creatures that were so intent on consuming the two humans and one fox in turn were being consumed by fire. What made this so unsettling though was that they did not even seem to notice the flames blackening and melting their rotting skin. They just continued their slow gait forward, their undivided attention on the three tasty pieces of flesh trying to make their getaway in a broken down SUV.

Fox didn't know why he thought these burning monsters would be more resilient than the others, but they went down with well-placed headshots all the same. Unfortunately, the rate at which the creatures were dropping wasn't enough and the ravenous circle of walking dead continued to close around them.

The grim situation was quickly remedied with the sound of Claire letting out a shout of joy and the SUV's engine starting up. The brunette wasted no time in getting into the driver's seat and shutting the door. Fox went for the driver's side back seat while Leon performed an impressive but probably unnecessary slide across the hood of the car to get to the passenger seat.

As Fox got into the back seat and made to close the door, he couldn't help but get in one last line, "Sorry to jet…" he taunted the nearest walking corpse before putting another laser in its brain, "but I'm in a hurry!"

Not one to be outdone when it came to cheesy one-liners, Leon hesitated before entering the car. "Monsters…" Leon chuckled before putting a bullet in the brain of one that was on fire and getting dangerously close to the trio's vehicle, "Guess now there's one less to worry about!"

"Ugh, can we just go?" Claire asked, palm firmly attached to her forehead.

Leon sheepishly muttered something unintelligible as he got in the car and shut the door. Claire immediately stepped on the accelerator and the SUV with the three survivors sped away, leaving the large crowd of zombies in its dust.

* * *

After checking to make sure the coast was clear, Krystal made her way across the dark barren street towards the alley on the other side. As she did, the blue vixen noticed a group of three of the humanoid abominations all crouched around the door of an overturned car. Krystal didn't have to look long to realize what they were doing: feeding on the poor soul who had been driving. Her stomach churned as she could hear the sounds of greedy teeth thoughtlessly ripping through bones and flesh. However, the three hungry corpses were too preoccupied with their feast to pay the bipedal vixen any notice and Krystal made her way into the back alley, pushing all thoughts of the gruesome scene away in favor of staying alert.

The alley was a filthy and admittedly smelly place lined with grimy dumpsters covered in rust and other articles of trash errantly discarded everywhere. The smell of burning fuel was added to the others as the other end of the alley was obscured by a burning vehicle that was destroyed beyond recognition, the flames illuminating the alley in an eerie orange glow. As unpleasant as it was, using the tight spaces between buildings was a lot safer than walking the streets where entire mobs of monsters can quickly appear out of nowhere. Of course, the alleys weren't completely devoid of danger.

A loud snarl suddenly filled the cramped space as an agile creature on four legs leapt out of the burning rubble ahead and landed a few feet away. It took Krystal a moment to identify the thing as one of the non-sapient dogs that people on this planet would keep as pets (a fact that had initially unnerved Krystal a bit when she first moved to Raccoon City a month ago). The creature Krystal was looking at now looked like an ordinary dog at first glance, but right away she noticed the patches of missing skin on its face and exposed ribs on its stomach that indicated it was no longer among the living. The beast's complete disregard for the flames currently eating it was another big indicator.

With another ferocious bark, the creature charged at Krystal at a speed that surprised her. Apparently this one didn't suffer from the same mobility limitations as the more humanoid ones did. With less time to react than she would have liked, Krystal raised her handgun and fired a couple of shots, but wasn't able to get off enough before the canine corpse leapt at her. Without thinking, Krystal swiftly delivered a kick to the beast's exposed ribs before it got very far off the ground, sending it off its feet and into a pile of trash to the side.

Krystal didn't give it the chance to get back up, putting multiple bullets in its brain while it struggled to get back onto its paws. The undead canine soon went limp and a puddle of blood started to form around the pile of black garbage bags it had ended up on.

Once she was certain it was dead, Krystal let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding before continuing forward through the alleyway; spotting another passage to the left of the burning vehicle remnants. So another of her fears had been realized: Umbrella's T-Virus affected more than just sapient humanoids. Krystal found herself wondering what else she would run into whilst she was here…

"WHOA! HELP ME!" A high-pitched and very familiar voice echoed nearby, accompanied by the sound of blaster fire. All Krystal could think about was who it sounded like that voice belonged to. It couldn't be…

Krystal rounded the corner in time to see a door on the right side of the alley open a fair distance away. Out from said door came a small green blur in a bright yellow jacket and a red and white cap. The short pudgy figure ran a little further down the alley pursued by a group of about five shambling corpses before ducking into another door on the left.

The blue-furred fox wasn't able to do much apart from stare ahead in shocked stupor, even as two of the zombies that were chasing the little frog adjusted their course once they noticed her standing there. No doubt about it, she had just seen Slippy Toad run by.

This new development raised so many questions. What was he doing here? Was the rest of Star Fox Team here too? If Star Fox was here, did that mean… _he_ was here?

This sobering thought brought Krystal's attention back to the present, where two monsters were slowly bearing down on her. Krystal raised her weapon and executed the first of the pair of undead quickly and mercilessly. _Why did he have to be here?_ She adjusted her sights and brought down the second monster with the same extreme prejudice as the first. _Why did he have to come here _now_ of all times?_

Krystal let out a sigh as she lowered her weapon and stood staring at the pair of inert, bloody forms on the ground. Her stomach filled with anxious butterflies. She wasn't quite sure she was ready to see _him_ again. Krystal simply collected her thoughts and continued in the direction she saw Slippy run off to. This was going to make things a Hell of a lot more complicated.


End file.
